Orders of the Day — Safeguarding of Industries Act, 1921.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 31 July 1922.

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Photo of Mr Herbert Asquith Mr Herbert Asquith , Paisley

There is one observation made by my right hon. Friend at the close of his speech with which I am glad to find myself in complete agreement. I find it difficult to understand how anyone who voted for the Second Reading of the Bill can take any serious objection to the Orders which are now being made. But my right hon. Friend's speech showed, I think, a certain change of temperature, although, as he said, he is mainly concerned with the administration of the Act, in his feelings for it. An ancient moralist said there was no spectacle more worthy of the attentive admiration of the Gods than that of a good roan struggling with adversity. Let me add to that that when the good man is impersonated, as he is to-day, under very adverse conditions, by the President of the Board of Trade, in addition to any celestial approbation to which he is entitled, I can assure him of the sympathetic respect of his political opponents. The solicitude which the right hon. Gentleman has shown to-night for the somewhat belated results of this legislation has been of slow growth. It has taken the Bill some time, as those who remember the Debates will agree, to worm its way into his heart and his convictions. The conquest, I am glad to see, is now complete and he exhibits for it something of that devoted parental or semi-parental care which is shown to those who have watched over the fluctuating health of a sickly child. But for one grave issue it would, to me, at any rate, be difficult to treat this as a serious occasion. The Parliamentary situation is, indeed, in my experience, almost unique. Last Monday, only a week ago, with the Whips off, the House was allowed a free vote, and took advantage of it to condemn a Protectionist embargo. To-night, with the Whips on, and with their assistance, the see-saw is on the other top. We are not only invited but required to approve of a Protectionist import duty. These are the expedients, perhaps the necessary expedients, by which an unstable combination secures, in the long run, an average of political equilibrium. The Orders which the right hon. Gentleman asks the House to sanction are, with one exception only, in my judgment, of very little intrinsic importance. The mountain which has been in labour all last year has produced an insignificant litter of mice. I see my hen. Friend the Member for Chippenham (Mr. G. Terrell) in his lonely conning tower, and I am sure there is no one in this country who is less satisfied with this miserable, exiguous, contemptible instalment of Protection than he. The truth is that when you look—I am taking the Order now in all its parts— when you look at the character of the industries to which it is applied, to the quantum of labour and capital which they affect, and to the revenue which this 33⅓ per cent. duty is going to bring into the Exchequer, how it justifies the predictions of those of us who resisted this legislation at every stage, and what a commentary it is on the outcry that Great Britain was being flooded, or was about to be flooded, with dumped goods from countries enjoying, as exporters, a depreciated exchange! I forget how many proposed Orders the right hon. Gentleman tells us—how many Resolutions have come before the Board of Trade and have not been sanctioned.